A Researcher's Perspective on Current Events

Politics

September 28, 2010

On a recent Harris Poll Americans were asked what type of Supreme Court justice they would most prefer. In response, half of U.S. adults said someone who keeps their personal opinions of “right” and “wrong” to themselves, and makes decisions strictly based on the letter of the law and the Constitution (51%). While it’s nice to hear that Americans believe so strongly in the Constitution, this response also somewhat amused me.

The U.S. Constitution is widely regarded as one of the most famous and enduring documents in United States, and possibly world, history. Written in 1787 and updated with the first ten amendments, commonly known as the Bill of Rights, in 1791, the Constitution has informed U.S. law, the rights of American citizens, and the creation of other governments around the world for more than 200 years. The reason that the Constitution has proven to be not only successful, but also enduring is as simple as it was forward-thinking.

The fathers of the U.S. Constitution were insightful enough to know that they didn’t have all the answers. They understood that in order to create a document that could be widely applied and lasting, it would have to be flexible, where the spirit is apparent, but the specifics are left up to interpretation.

It is this fixed need for interpretation that makes the Constitution applicable today, which simultaneously makes the answer of 51% of American adults, interesting and possibly amusing. Luckily, the Constitution also provides for freedom of speech, or the open exchange of ideas, whereby compromise and consensus might be reached. That is, at least, according to my interpretation.

August 23, 2010

The Harris Poll's Alienation Index has stayed nearly the same (actually it’s gone down one point) from last year … meaning we, as Americans, essentially feel just as “disaffected,” “isolated,” and even “hostile”… according to my Microsoft Word thesaurus… as we did last year.

That’s the bad news.

Now, here’s the good news…We appear to feel significantly less alienated today than we have in the previous two decades, and we feel less alienated now under the tutelage of Barack Obama than under Clinton, Bush (the father), Reagan, Carter and Ford.

But hold up, before we start popping the champagne of peace, love and understanding, there’s also some confusing news…Our level of alienation is about the same today as it was under George W? And we feel less alienated now than when we did when the economy was booming? When we weren’t at war? When we all had jobs? So go figure…

When we parse apart the statements that make up the Index (separating those that are more political from those that are more social or economic in nature), we can provide a little more detail to the story.

In terms of agreement (which means higher alienation), Americans today are more likely to feel that:

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer = ↑ 2

You’re left out of things going on around you = ↑ 2

And less likely to feel that:

The people running the country don’t really care what happens to you = ↓ 3

What you think doesn’t count very much anymore = ↓ 4

Most people with power try to take advantage of people like yourself = ↓ 4

Maybe this Index is somewhat emotional and not altogether rational. But there is some evidence that Americans today are more likely to feel that their voice is being heard, even if the economy is tanking and their world is spinning…Score a small 1 for Barack Obama.

July 30, 2010

Our Public Affairs and Policy research division was honored to work on a landmark study for the Kessler Foundation and National Organization on Disability to help mark the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The study results were featured on the Today Show and we are delighted to share the full study and this clip with you. Enjoy! And cheers, to twenty years.

June 09, 2010

So if you are anything like me, you have a “to do” list a mile long and you feel a sense of accomplishment every time you cross something off and lament what just keeps moving forward from one day to the next with no end in sight.

My general impression is that these lists and systems are what keep us Americans afloat and stop us from turning into a puddle of emoticons at the end of each multi-tasking day. And so, we have a pyramid for our food choices, a catalog for our library books, a “feng shui” for our rooms, and a store for our Containers.

But at the macro-level, according to a new Harris Poll, the majority of us rate almost every system in American life as fair/poor. We are decidedly un-impressed by our:

System of government (57%)

Legal system (63%)

Health care system (67%)

Economic system (68%)

Political system (72%)

In each case, I’m not sure which system we would like better (or even if we could find any collective agreement), but luckily we rate our “TV, movies and entertainment” highly so we can get our mind off perfecting all that other stuff.

June 04, 2010

Ah Obama. Life stinks at the top. Remember the days when you were just a precocious, lovable Senator from Illinois that could do no wrong. And now, 58% of the public knows you and doesn’t like you and 64% wishes you would do anything but what you’re doing on the economy. In all candor, this is my very slangy paraphrase of some of our recent Harris Polls…

And the reality for Obama is that Americans seem to like him or at least respect him, but boy, we sure don’t like some of the decisions he’s making. I think there’s some underlying psychobabble here… Like I tell my kids all the time “I love you; I just don’t love how you’re acting.”

And so it goes with America… Majorities think:

Obama is a strong leader (58%)

He is a tough fighter for things he believes in (77%)

He usually gets what he wants (65%)

Majorities also rate:

His overall performance negatively (58%)

His specific actions re: the economy negatively (64%)

So therein lies the (perhaps unsolvable) problem…how to get Americans to embrace the decisions and the policies as much as we embrace the person, the campaigner and in some respects the leader? I wish I had the answers but I am still trying to regroup from Celine Dion being named America’s favorite singer so I’ll have to leave this one to the policy experts.

May 05, 2010

Ah, the overwhelming teenage dilemma …Is it better to be popular or smart? Popular or successful? Popular or powerful? Popular or really anything else?

It turns out Barack Obama is both. He is our well-liked and influential leader … He’s the captain of the football team and the president of Student Council. According to a recent France 24/Harris Poll among adults in the United States, Italy, France, Spain, Great Britain and Germany, most of us have a very/somewhat good opinion of Barack Obama… and:

Like him nearly as much as we did when he was first elected and way more than basically every other well-known world leader (except maybe the Dalai Lama) – including all 5 leaders of the EU5, and many in South America, Asia and the Middle East; and,

Believe he has a great deal/some influence at an international level, more than most other well-known world leaders.

Note that we here in the United States have a less rosy (and getting progressively unrosier) opinion of Obama than those abroad, but most of us still like him somewhat.

Too bad these warm fuzzy feelings haven’t translated into optimism about his job performance here at home or the economy or health care reform (see every other Over the Wirepost from last week). Turns out, we can like someone very much and perhaps even want him to sit at our lunch table or take him to the school prom, but not want him in charge of our allowance or our personal life.

April 29, 2010

So we learned earlier this week from a recent Harris Poll that the public’s top concern(s) right now and the areas in desperate need of attention from our government are: health care (despite “reform”), the (lack of) jobs, and the (still failing, contrary to what today's Wall Street Journal article says) economy. So let’s focus today on doors #2 and #3.

Editorializing some (but not much in my humble opinion), it seems like Obama’s approval rating will forever be married to the economy and jobs. We were in a painful state of disrepair when Obama took office and will likely be obsessing until we get some relief...Not to mention, we Americans now prefer our groceries organic, our toys wired, and our faces wrinkle-free, and stating what’s obvious, all of these things take money.

April 27, 2010

I'm a glass is half-full kind of gal…and I like Obama. He strikes me as smart, sincere and reasonable. So I want to give him some good news. I want to, I really do want to, but I can’t. According to a Harris Poll released last week:

His approval ratings haven’t received even a small bounce since the passage of health care reform (the focus of most or all of his energy over the past many months).

And 61% of Americans still think the country is on the wrong track – more than at any point during W’s first term.

But, consider this, all you with the half-empty glasses: Obama’s approval ratings aren’t getting worse. In fact, they have pretty much remained unchanged for the past four months after rolling slowly down hill for the six months prior.

So, I may be reaching here but you can’t build Rome or tame a wildebeest or move a glacier (or insert own metaphor) in a day. So, perhaps Obama is poised to make a come back.

He has finally tackled health care (the #1 issue the public wanted him to address for the first year+ of his presidency) and perhaps the public will feel the impact of this reform just in time for the election.

He can now focus on the public’s pre-eminent frustration with employment and the economy. And perhaps if he does some good work here, then he (and other Democratic legislators) will feel some sort of positive bounce.

And he has received a similar vote of confidence as Clinton did during his first term (when at least as many - if not more - Americans thought the country was moving in the wrong direction and then changed to a more optimistic tune on this measure during his second term).